NYC Comptroller Pressures Spotify After ICE Ads Spark Outrage | EUROtoday

New York City’s chief monetary officer wrote to Spotify Thursday to press the corporate for particulars concerning the recruitment adverts for Immigration and Customs Enforcement which were operating on the platform in current weeks.

Comptroller Brad Lander, a current mayoral candidate and notable supporter of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, wrote to Spotify “about recent developments that may violate Spotify’s advertising policies and impact long-term shareholder value.”

Specifically, Lander needs to find out about ICE recruitment adverts on Spotify, which he wrote have “sparked widespread backlash and at least one major national organization is urging Spotify users to cancel their subscription,” a reference to Indivisible’s “Don’t Stream Fascism: Cancel Spotify” marketing campaign.

“In too many cities, dangerous illegals walk free as police are forced to stand down,” says one model of the advert, which was recorded by a TikTok customers and archived by fact-checking website Snopes. “Join ICE and help us catch the worst of the worst, with bonuses up to $50,000 and generous benefits. Apply now.”

“From a fiduciary perspective,” Lander wrotehe’s “concerned about the reputational risks these ads may create for the company, which could hamper long-term growth, and [wants] to better understand how the company assessed these ads against the company’s stated advertising policies.”

Lander wrote that the pension funds “hold significant investments in Spotify.” A spokesperson for his workplace stated that, taken collectively, the funds have 691,681 shares of Spotify, value $482,793,542 as of Sept. 30. Spotify’s share worth has fallen barely since then.

A Spotify spokesperson informed HuffPost in an announcement: “This ad itself is part of a wider campaign from the U.S. government running across multiple platforms, including television, streaming, and online channels. Users can help control their ad experience by liking or disliking an ad or by logging into their account via web browser and updating their ad preferences.”

Lander’s letter asks Spotify the way it assessed the adverts’ in opposition to firm coverage prohibiting “systemic discrimination and marginalization,” and whether or not the corporate has assessed “the impact of this controversy on subscriber retention, artist relationships, or brand perception,” amongst different inquiries.

“Hopefully what we’ll get is good answers to the questions we’re asking,” Lander informed HuffPost in an interview Friday morning. He characterised the letter as an preliminary engagement between a consultant of New York City worker pension funds — as comptroller, Lander is a trustee of every of the 5 funds — and an organization by which these funds have an funding stake.

If Spotify doesn’t have a passable response to his questions, Lander stated, town’s funds may work with different buyers to press Spotify for solutions or think about a shareholder decision to take action.

“In some cases [in the past]where we have been unable to get answers we are looking for, or have a satisfactory engagement, we have divested from, or sold the stock of, particular companies or sectors,” he stated. “We only do that after a lot of engagement. Our strong preference is to use our position as investors to reach resolution. We do this from a responsible fiduciary perspective, believing that what we’re doing is helping increase the value of the companies we’re invested in … we’re just starting here, this is the first letter we’re writing.”

The comptroller stated he’s involved with systemic discrimination within the Trump administration’s “mass deportation” agenda — “and that includes any ads,” he stated. “The mass deportation effort involves a broadscale hiring effort to make ICE the largest law enforcement agency in American history.”

Lander famous a pattern of U.S. residents and lawful everlasting residents being arrested by immigration brokers. “Essentially every time, [it is] a person of color, without, so far as we can tell, lawful basis for many of the arrests,” he stated.

“If you are conducting arrests without lawful basis, and they are consistently of people of one ethnicity, that is a systemic civil rights violation — and I believe these ads are part of it,” he added.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, doesn’t promote solely with Spotify. Recruitment adverts to turn out to be an immigration agent have additionally appeared on platforms together with X, YouTube, LinkedIn and Meta, and on cable tv, The Independent famous. Separately, DHS has spent tens of millions of {dollars} on promoting pressuring individuals to “self-deport.”

Lander stated Thursday’s letter was particularly relating to Spotify’s “quite strong anti-discrimination policy — and we’re asking for how they assess these ads against that.”

Lander’s letter quantities to a shot throughout the bow for Spotify. As comptroller, he has a authorized “fiduciary” obligation to behave in the very best monetary pursuits of New York City’s pension funds. As effectively as trustee, the comptroller serves as an funding advisor and custodian for the 5 funds — one every for police, firefighters, educators, non-pedagogical instructional employees, and different metropolis employees. While he doesn’t have unilateral management over the pension funds, he has affect over the funds’ administration. Lander famous that the 5 funds’ accountable investing program is staffed by the comptroller’s workplace and that “we do a letter like this in consultation with our boards.”

Combined, the funds have over $300 billion in property beneath administration, making them the fourth largest public pension plan within the nation, in response to the comptroller’s workplace.

Lander’s workplace shared the letter, which is addressed to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, with HuffPost.

Lander himself has been arrested by federal brokers twice in current months on the immigration court docket in decrease Manhattan, the place brokers have been systematically arresting migrants displaying up for scheduled court docket check-ins — and the place Lander regularly observes proceedings.

“We owe it to the families of those detained — and every New Yorker impacted by Donald Trump’s mass deportation machine — to keep showing up and demanding accountability for the violence, cruelty, and lawless abduction of our neighbors,” he stated final month after urgent DHS for solutions concerning the return to responsibility of 1 notably violent officer.

Spotify isn’t solely dealing with strain over the ICE ads. Ek’s enterprise capital agency, Prima Materia, lately led a 600 million euro funding spherical for Helsing, a European army expertise firm, which led to an exodus of artists from the platform. Ek can also be chairman of Helsing.